What's your worst habit and what's your plan to mess it up?

[Anonymous]

Day 4 update: got up 15 minutes early (not planned). Did not turn on computer at all. Did my morning meditation sitting before anything else, then took meds, ate breakfast (while reading a freebie newspaper I picked up a few days ago) – was tempted to read on after finishing breakfast but decided not to, after all, it was old news anyway so it could keep a bit longer.

Got to work 10 minutes late at 8:40 am. But I now have a better idea of how long it will take me to get going in the morning without distractions.

A productive day otherwise, to make up for the lost day cutting down the cherry tree yesterday. I really want to be doing a special project, but for the past 4 days, have deliberately not done it. It’s still driving me a bit crazy, but the crazy feeling is subsiding. I am starting to feel like I’m in control here!

REPORT ABUSE

[Carrie]

Wow!! You are doing awesome!! I am in awe! I have failed every single day. Im to the point where I just want to smash my laptop to keep myself from it! But then I have all the Nintendo systems that need smashing too.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

Day 5: slept in a half an hour longer because again I was up until 11:30 or so. me bad.

Left for work at 9:00 as a result, but did NOT turn on the computer in the morning, again did my morning meditation, took my meds, read the now 3 day old newspaper (it was a freebie) during breakfast, and stopped for a large coffee on the way to work.

Productive day, left the office at 5:30 for home. I have not worked any evening this week!

Here’s what I realized as a result of all of this:

• I work best alone
• I need complete quiet when I’m working – no music or people making noise around me
• I need a window to look out of, but it needs to be higher than desk level so I have to stand up to look out
• I need natural lighting, not industrial fluorescent
• I need to get up at least once an hour and walk around a bit
• I dare not go on the internet during work or in the morning
• I dare not turn the computer on at home in the morning if I have to go anywhere (like work or an appointment)

I still need to go to work tomorrow to make up for Wednesday, in order to meet my goal of a true 5 day work week, but I’m pretty proud of the fact that I was able to mess up my habit, and more importantly, get a closer look at what goes on. That was the main purpose of this post, to document it so I can see what went on. I’ll post again tomorrow. No slacking off on a Saturday, even if it is a long weekend 😥

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

carrie,

yay new icon

first step is awareness. you have succeeded in figuring how persevering the habit is. Compy went sleepy time at 12am. Not too bad at all, but this is hard. I went to bed at 12am last night (had to get up at 6am) because playing with the mobile. just very cemented habits which will not be broken in just days. the goal is to start veering in the right direction, even if still in the planning stage.

REPORT ABUSE

[Carrie]

Yes, im always changing it. Always need change! Im just here posting quick. Then off to get the camper ready and head out into the forest! Gosh how I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the forest! I live in the Rockie Mountains of British Columbia! They are a 5 minute walk away! I grew up in them… and one day want to live off the land in them! hahaha

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

I have some family in BC. absolutely gorgeous! have a great time

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

Day 6 update: to make up for day 3 which was a completely nonproductive day as far as work goes since I had to leave early for a doc’s appointment and never got back here.

Got to bed earlier last night (10:30 pm) since I was really tired from yesterday’s workday.

I woke up on time today but snoozed the alarm for about 10 minutes. Then I read a bit of a book I had taken to bed last night to help me fall asleep. Got up, did my meditation sitting, had a shower. Took my meds and ate breakfast. The snoozing, reading and shower conspired to make me late getting out of the house, not until 9 am. Then I did a couple of errands (banking, health food store, mailbox pickup, get an EXTRA LARGE coffee to help wake me up some more) and so I didn’t get to work until 9:45 am. My husband showed up with lunch at 11:30 am. It’s now 4:30 pm and I am calling it quits for the day. When I get a take-out coffee and bring it into work, I don’t get started on productive work right away, I tend to check email and surf the internet a bit, so boohoo for that!

Now I know if I indulge in any of these non-essentials, I will not make it to work on time. And I can still be distracted by them if I don’t get a “fix” of them from time to time. So I need to plan accordingly, which includes making time for these things, just not when I need to get somewhere at a particular time or get something done.

I also saved the worst task of the day to the end of the day, I sweat a lot doing it and get pretty messy, so I wanted to make sure I didn’t give up on the day of work before that got done. Now I’m all messy so I’m going home to shower and enjoy dinner at home.

Tomorrow we plan on doing FUN stuff and NO WORK! Yay! I did a 5 day work week and survived it and learned a lot in the process!

Like sugargremlin says, awareness is the key. But sometimes we don’t know what our distractions and habits are until we deliberately try to mess them up. I kind of knew what some of my issues were but this week really helped me see them more clearly in relation to the things I really want to be doing.

REPORT ABUSE

[Carrie]

No Dopamine – Thats great!! Your actions are a motivation for me!

We didnt end up going camping I just couldnt make up my mind… and then the day is gone and we have gone no where. Well we made a trip into town, but it was wasted… We forgot the bank was closed on a long weekend! After that… I played some xbox… Mom called and needed some help. Helped her. Came back. I just cant get myself into gear!! Someone get out the cattle prod! PLEASE! hahaha I did get the weeds pulled the other day… They are still in a pile by my front steps. I realized I need to get all my things together before I start… Or I will leave it half done. I did that because I didnt know what to do with the weeds. Husband wasnt home at the time. Hes here now.. So will load them up in the truck!

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

Hi Carrie,

I thought you were going away! That happens to us a lot, we plan to do something, but never follow through on it, and then we complain that we never do anything!

Rick’s blog post about doing just one thing was very helpful. So you could try making a goal of just doing “___________” and nothing else for [a] the next 5 minutes or the next hour or [c] until lunch or [d] until it’s finished (the last is the hardest!). You might not be able to do it but you might see your patterns more clearly.

I had to do it for a whole week to really start to see what was going on. My therapist calls it “stalking the pattern”. Now I know what he means, I never really understood it before. I mean, I could never remember what I wanted or needed to do from one moment to the next, and was easily distracted or tempted away. With the meds, a schedule, and postponing some of my distractions temporarily, I was able to accomplish much of what I wanted to. I still feel I should be doing more, but that might not be realistic (after all, I think I’m Superwoman, but every time I try to fly, I fall flat, that should tell me something).

If I wasn’t working for myself, I still would have fired me. I didn’t produce as much as a so-called normal person would, but I was able to stay focused, resist the temptation to do what I wanted to do instead of what I needed to do, and keep my workday to regular hours, not overtime. And what I produced was very good quality. So the attention is there on what I’m doing, not on what I should or want to do, or on that brand new hot green Fiat 5500 driving down the street! (normally I would start googling that, spending an hour or more finding out about it)

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

and BTW, I only sat down at the computer for a moment to look something up about a new supplement I’m trying – I did print out what I needed, but then saw an order and then your post and I’ve been sitting here now for awhile! As usual, I get tired late at night and hang out on the computer, not usually very productive. I should get off now and read some more of the book I’ve been reading (I have 4 on the go right now).

REPORT ABUSE

[Bill]

Interesting YouTube video about how long it takes to break a bad habit and establish a new one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z6OKNx28nQ

REPORT ABUSE

[Tiddler]

Worst habit – eating at night when I can’t sleep.

Plan to mess it up – exercise.

REPORT ABUSE

[Author]

Posts